Home healthcare agency follows Democrats’ lead in busting labor

When the state Democratic leadership called the cops on organized labor last year in a ham-fisted effort to get out of voting on the Workers Privacy Act, they sent a couple of strong messages to employers statewide.

First, by killing legislation that would have prevented employers from requiring workers to attend anti-union meetings (or religious meetings, for that matter), and by doing so in such a high profile fashion, the Democratic leadership tacitly endorsed exactly the kind of coercive practices the bill sought to ban. Second, if the Democratic leadership, of all people, were willing to so casually throw organized labor under the bus — one of their most loyal constituencies — well, it was only time before employers started following their lead.

And that’s apparently what is happening with the Korean Women’s Association in their contract negotiations with home health care workers represented by SEIU 775NW.

The video above shows KWA Executive Director Peter Ansara bashing the union at a mandatory meeting held Feb. 1, 2010. “They’re not going to bat for you,” Ansara tells the assembled SEIU members “… but your dues just went up a buck.” Ansara goes on to accuse the union of “not standing up for you,” while KWA Board Chair Sul Ja Warnick reminisces fondly about the pre-union days. All this at a meeting billed as workers’ compensation training, and paid for with Medicaid funds.

So what’s KWA’s beef with SEIU? After years of enjoying a model labor-management relationship with SEIU, KWA has suddenly decided to play hardball. While none of the other eight home healthcare agencies SEIU bargains with in Washington state are seeking cuts in wages or benefits, KWA is demanding substantial concessions from workers whose starting salary is only $10/hour.

Since 2006, all of the state’s home healthcare agencies have covered the full cost of their workers’ compensation premiums, but KWA is demanding that its workers now pay 30 cents an hour, amounting to a 3 percent reduction in take-home pay. KWA is also alone in seeking to eliminate the 45 cents per mile reimbursement for workers driving between clients, during the workday, using their own vehicles… a tremendous potential hardship for such low wage workers, especially those working in more rural communities. And finally, while all agencies receive 10 cents a worker hour from the state to pay for training programs, KWA wants to only spend 5 cents an hour, and keep the other nickel for itself.

And if SEIU won’t budge, then apparently it has to be busted, or at least so seems the philosophy of Ansara, who took over the reins at KWA just before the agency assumed its new, anti-union posture.

“The caregiving business… is really from a business perspective, a numbers game,” Ansara told the assembled workers, though of course, it really is not. The caregiving business should be about providing compassionate, quality care. Indeed, Ansara’s statement reveals exactly the kind of attitude that inevitably leads to the sort of abuses recently documented by the Seattle Times.

But as long as we’re talking about numbers, it’s important to point out that while KWA pays workers $10/hour, it receives a $17.46/hour in Medicaid reimbursement from the state. The other home healthcare agencies are managing to get by on the same gross margins without demanding concessions from their already low-wage workers. Why can’t KWA?

I dunno. Perhapas Ansara is just a prick. Or perhaps KWA is particularly poorly managed. Or perhaps, KWA got the message loud and clear from Democrats in Olympia that it’s open season on labor.

What I do know is that I wouldn’t want my loved ones taken care of by a home healthcare agency that shows so little respect and empathy for its own workers.

But as long as we’re talking about numbers, it’s important to point out that while KWA pays workers $10/hour, it receives a $17.46/hour in Medicaid reimbursement from the state. The other home healthcare agencies are managing to get by on the same gross margins without demanding concessions from their already low-wage workers. Why can’t KWA?

I’d guess the increased remainder would be going into Ansara’s and the other top folks at the KWA’s pockets. We’re seeing a huge money grab going on by some of the heads of housing/care related non-profits in the South Sound.

I dunno. Perhapas Ansara is just a prick.

Bingo!

I don’t think Ansara had a role in this, but I’d take a look:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/.....58044.html The former executive director of the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association on Wednesday disputed recent claims made by the nonprofit’s board of directors that he improperly managed agency finances and misspent funds without board approval.

I think everyone should be an entrepreneur! These workers should form their own independent consulting businesses and sell their services to KWA for $75 an hour. Everybody else charges $75 an hour, so why shouldn’t they? You can’t get a lawn mowed or a carpet cleaned for less than that.

Goldy– You’re a funny man. Trying to paint the Democrats, who have put this State close to Bankrupcy with excessive benefits and compensation in a Recession to UNION Employees in an unsustainable way, is laughable. They have also supported Budgets with no cuts to Union Employee levels. In fact, the # have increased in a recession.

Agency’s like this can be grouped into two camps: 1. People aren’t paid much, but are treated well and employee turnover is quite low. 2. People aren’t paid much, are treated like crap and turnover is really high (100% a year in a couple of cases).

The groups that fall under exhibit #1’s example not only make more money for the bosses, they deliver better quality care. KWA used to fall under #1.

When are you going to wake up and realize that Mr. Cynical is right, Goldy?; the only way this state is going to survive is to cut wages and benefits of public sector workers down to a level that can be sustained by current revenues.

Sure, some of them will leave for greener pastures, but let them! That will just help us shrink government even more, down to the level it’s supposed to be!

And all those whiners who “depend” on the services that the state provides? Let them move to Oregon or some other place where the government is less enlightened. Heck, I bet Mr. Cynical would even pay for their bus tickets. Good riddance, I say.

As a left-winger with anarchist tendencies, I agree we should reduce government, but more importantly, we need to reduce the ability of some to hold unaccountable power over others. So here’s my suggestion: Repeal Taft-Hartley.

After all. It is a coercive big government policy restraining voluntary association, and you just HATE coercion, right?

Pompous lickspittle jerk. There are evil people in their gated communities in Palm Beach who cackle every time they read the screeds by fools like you who provide them with no cost political cover to play a zero sum game with our country’s wealth.

Has a nice ring to it. Realistic? Perhaps not. But the “realism” of “free market” sycophants is no less realistic. Tea baggers screech against our society….a society still in the throes of the grinding effects of so-called free markets as the social bonds we know as “community” are broken down into cash transactions, big box stores stretch to the horizon, our farmland is paved over (a socialist policy by the way), and everybody ‘gets their own’, but it’s just dust.

You want white picket fences, Ozzie and Harriet? Well, it ain’t gonna happen when you worship the golden calf. So what are you? Stupid? Or a tool?

@8 It doesn’t matter to me personally because I don’t work for the state anymore. I’ve already quit and taken my retirement. No one I know stays a day longer than they have to. Low pay, bad working conditions, hostile public — people aren’t putting up with it. They’re leaving. State agencies are being gutted of their experienced personnel.

Michael– Good story. The Company will be owned by an ESOP. The article doesn’t say if that means 100% of the stock…I would assume so from the tenor of the article. You might want to check that out though.

Why should someone changing the diapers of some elderly charge make more than $10/hr? They aren’t doing anything to serve society like running a theocratic PAC. If they do make more than that, they should tithe appropriately.

Man, I am glad we rejected SEIU. I never had to sit through an anti-union meeting, maybe because they know I an against joining SEIU. The only change that would happen is I would lose pay to fund causes I don’t agree with. That is why I pay taxes. SEIU is a bunch of cowards and bullies. I stood up to them and they never came back. It was almost a disappointment. I kept hearing how SEIU was going to get all of us into the union. A year and a half later a few people joined but no accounts joined. Rejection. So much for the tough SEIU. They are cowards.

So Puddy asks Goldy what’s wrong sitting through an anti-union meeting? Will the union tell you how the union dues are spent? Will the union tell you how the big union leaders go to nice hotels and waste union funds enjoying the sun, sand and surf while the little peeps work for $10/hr?

We know the SEIU leadership (Andy Stern) wasted almost $80 million on Odumbas campaign… then they laid off 74 union membas becuz they wasted all those union dues on Odumbas campaign. So where was the local union 775NW on that fiasco? Did they know? Did they tell their union constituents about this?

Maybe the KWA is going about this all wrong. Why not file a FOIA and see the books? It seems to Puddy the usual suspects are here throwing around accusations with generic facts. What if Ansara is a BIG TIME Dummocrapt and votes lock step lickspittle Moonbat! in each election? He would sound “very progressive” to Puddy!

While Goldy cries for the caregiver legislation in the other thread, will Goldy also call for the same type of legislation for those who take care of our kids approximately 7 hours a day in schools? Hmmm…? If you want to validate their employment with the aged then you have to do the same on the young-ins!

@34 The logic is simple. It costs the union money to bargain for pay, benefits, and working conditions. Why should your cousin get that at union members’ expense? Under federal law, he’s entitled to not join the union, but he’s not entitled to be a freeloader.

@33 Workers are there to work. Employers pay them for their labor, and nothing else. Employers should not have a right to force workers to listen to political, religious, or economic propaganda. That should be against the law.

Don’t ask me, as a taxpayer and consumer, to prop up your farm income with crop supports, government-rigged prices, subsidized water, electricity, and farm loans, or special tax breaks. If you can’t make it without handouts, you’re in the wrong business.

Roger said: It costs the union money to bargain for pay, benefits, and working conditions. Why should your cousin get that at union members’ expense?

I see the issue differently. If he doesn’t join the union, the union is not bargaining on his behalf and he should be able to negotiate his own pay/benefits, etc. The converse is also true, he doesn’t get the union “protection”.

Let’s pretend I work for KWA at $10 an hour. I was making $80 a day or $400 a week before taxes.

Let’s say I drive 60 miles a day seeing clients. At 45 cents a mile that costs me $27 a day. The 30 cents an hour is another $2.40 a day. So now my pay is $253 a week instead of $400. That’s a 37% pay cut.

Good luck finding my replacement, because I don’t work for you anymore. I can’t afford to. Oh, and btw, because the pay cut exceeds 25% I can collect unemployment benefits at your expense while I look for a new job.

@47 He’s not paying dues if he’s not in the union. He pays a “shop fee” that recovers the union’s costs of bargaining for his wages, benefits, and working conditions.

But let’s suppose federal law were changed so workers who don’t want to join the union can opt out of shop fees and bargain individually with the employer. Know what will happen?

First, the union will negotiate a contract that covers only union members. Second, the employer will pay nonmembers a nonunion wage. Now visualize this scenario:

Nonunion worker: Boss, I’m doing the same work as Joe Bloe, but he gets $28 an hour and I get only $14 an hour.

Boss: He’s a union member, so he gets the union rate.

Nonunion worker: I’d like to ask for a raise. I work faster than Joe, so I’m worth more. How about if we discuss $33 an hour?

Boss: I can offer you $14 an hour.

Nonunion worker: Um, what if we split the difference between $28 and $33?

Boss: You have a job at $14 an hour. If you don’t want it, I have 300 applications in my file.

Nonunion worker: Er, can’t we negotiate?

Boss: I’m aware of your superior work, and I’d like to keep you. I’m willing to submit a request for $15 an hour to headquarters, but it’s their decision. So far, all the nonunion positions have come back as $14 an hour. They aren’t making any exceptions. The CEO says we need to control labor costs because the board wants to boost dividends.

Nonunion worker: Will you be submitting that request today?

Boss: No, I won’t get to it before next week at the earliest. Headquarters asked me to take a big shareholder on a VIP tour of the plant today.

@51 “I’ve never been in a union. I thought it odd that my Cousin has to pay dues, even if he doesn’t join. Is this normal?”

Your cousin doesn’t have to pay union dues unless he chooses to join the union.

Unless he lives in a right-to-work state, if the union contract with the employer contains a “union security clause,” he can be required to pay shop fees as a condition of employment. This is found in the Taft-Hartley Act, which was enacted in 1947. Prior to Taft-Hartley, unions could negotiate contracts requiring employers to fire workers who failed to join the union within a specified time. This was found in the National Labor Relations Act enacted in 1935.

I’m surprised you’re unaware of this. It’s basic labor law that most people learn in their high school civics class. Did you miss that class?

Full disclosure: I own Boeing shares, so it doesn’t bother me if your cousin works for nonunion wages.

I’m sentimental about unions, but let’s face it, the union is getting its ass kicked! Boeing has a hot new airplane, and is building them in a right-to-work state, where labor costs are half as much. And there won’t be any strikes disrupting production! This created an undervalued situation that I couldn’t ignore, so I backed up the truck and shoveled BA shares into my portfolio.

Personally, I don’t understand why your cousin wants that lousy job. He should quit and flip stocks like me! The pay is better, taxes are lower, and there’s no commuting expenses or boss hassles. I’d much rather walk around the plant with the superintendent than work in it. It’s beyond me why anyone would rather be an employee than a shareholder. That makes no sense.

@33 Workers are there to work. Employers pay them for their labor, and nothing else. Employers should not have a right to force workers to listen to political, religious, or economic propaganda. That should be against the law.

Well this guy is a nice reminder as to why unions can be necessary. I find it appalling that in home health care workers can only make $10.00 an hour. With take backs on mileage and such, a person could make more money slinging burgers at McDonalds and not have to worry about lifting, lowering disabled adults into inflatable bathtubs, balancing a person in a hoyer lift, worrying about how to get a person out of a house in an emergency. Home health care workers often can’t even afford a car and seem to be socially very much on the edge. And yet these are the people who are there to take care of our most vulnerable citizens.

It’s really very difficult for people who need to hire in home care providers to find people that they can keep.

@67 – Great addition to the conversation. Are you purposefully an obtuse troll, or just crazy?

Let me simplify this so you can maybe add something useful to the discussion:

My claim: Making $17/hr PER MEMBER to file and push paperwork does not seem like a good value for the people doing the actual work.

Question to you: Do you agree or disagree?

My claim #2: If these workers filed their own medicare claims (as individuals or as a group), they could make more money. You’ve always espoused the independent contractor here, so I think you would support this.

Question #2 to you: Do you think the workers would benefit from filing their own medicare reimbursements and thus be able to make more money at their trade?

@69 “@67 – Great addition to the conversation. Are you purposefully an obtuse troll, or just crazy?”

Uh, no — this is a liberal blog; you’re the troll here.

My saying that forming a union and negotiating a contract with the employer is between the workers and employer isn’t crazy. If you’re not the employer or one of the workers, then your intrusion into it is crazy.

“Let me simplify this so you can maybe add something useful to the discussion:

“My claim: Making $17/hr PER MEMBER to file and push paperwork does not seem like a good value for the people doing the actual work.”

“Question to you: Do you agree or disagree?

I would argue that if the employer gets $17/hr from Medicaid, and pays the workers $10/hr, the $7 difference might be going to necessary costs and a reasonable profit margin, or the employer might be profiteering at the workers’ expense. By forming a union, the workers can have a say in the pricing of their labor. As individuals, they’re at the mercy of the employer.

“My claim #2: If these workers filed their own medicare claims (as individuals or as a group), they could make more money. You’ve always espoused the independent contractor here, so I think you would support this.

“Question #2 to you: Do you think the workers would benefit from filing their own medicare reimbursements and thus be able to make more money at their trade?

I can’t presume to tell the SEIU workers whether to form their own businesses or work for someone else. As a lawyer, I would own my practice and charge about $350/hr.; if you offered me a job as in-house counsel for your business at $25/hr., I’d say no.

@69 Part of the problem is your reading comprehension. Nobody makes $17/hr. to push paper. The state pays $17.46/hr to KWA for providing home care services. KWA is the contractor who hires workers at $10/hr. and supervises their work. KWA keeps the $7.46/hr difference. This has to cover all of KWA’s expenses, including rent and utilities, office staff, business taxes, etc. Without seeing their books, I don’t know whether they can afford to pay their workers’ L&I and mileage. If they can’t, and other contractors can, that would argue they’re inefficient or their manager is overpaid. In fact, there’s a good chance here that Ansara wants to take money out of their pockets to put in his own pocket.

If you want to argue about Medicaid vendor payment rates, then let me give you fair warning. There’s about two or three dozen people in the entire state who are experts on this subject. Congressman Jim McDermott is one of them, because he wrote the law. I’m one of them, because I used to do this kind of work for the state. There’s maybe 3 or 4 lawyers with private law firms who can be considered experts on this subject. So, if you want to argue with me about this, you’re going up against a legal expert who knows the subject.

This is not a cost-plus system. The state determines the reimbursement rate and it’s up to the contractor to run an efficient operation within the budget established by the state-determined rate. If he doesn’t, he’ll lose money. When a union is involved and negotiates a uniform labor rate for all the contractors, then if Ansara can’t live with that labor cost it means something is wrong with his management, not with the negotiated labor rate. He’s either wasting money somewhere else in his operation, or he’s profiteering at the workers’ expense. If he has higher mileage costs than the other contractors because his clients live in rural areas then he should negotiate that with the state. But L&I and training costs should be the same for all the contractors, and the fact he’s trying to chisel in those areas, too, strongly suggests he’s a chiseler who is simply trying to line his own pockets at the workers’ expense.

This case illustrates why workers need unions. The union is within its legal rights to try to include all the home care workers in its bargaining unit, so contractors like Ansara can’t drive the unionized contractors out of business by undercutting wages. Federal and state laws, not Ansara, determine whether KWA’s workers are unionized. If he can’t come to an agreement with them on wages, L&I taxes, training, and mileage, then they have the right to withhold their work unless there’s a no-strike clause in the law or contract. The workers reasonably expect him to agree to the same contract the other contractors do. His profit should be determined by how well he manages his business, not how hard he can squeeze his workers. SEIU exists in the first place because of the Ansaras of the world.

Roger, what I wanted is discourse and viewpoint, and you have now provided that. Your last 3 posts are a stark contrast to the flippant responses you were giving.

Thanks for giving me some knowledge about this area. As you can tell, I’m not an expert.

And you’re right, I missed the delta between the reimbursement and the hourly wage.

Based on what Goldy wrote, there still exists a profit between what the union or KWA receives from state medicare reimbursement and what they pay the workers. I haven’t seen their books but it’s easy math to see what kind of revenue they generate and determine if it’s grossly profitable or just keeping the lights on.

But if I was one of these caregivers, I’d try to go independant and collect the reimbursement myself. I would make more money if I could do that.

If you were one of these workers, what would you do?

As an expert in this area, do you know if an individual can file for his/her own medicare reimbursement if they are a caregiver?

@73 The union doesn’t receive money from the state. The union receives dues from its members for representing them in contract negotiations with the employers.

Where would workers making $10/hr get capital to start a business? I suppose it’s not completely out of the question. But people making $10/hr do not, generally speaking, have money beyond their own subsistence.

Please Donate

I appreciate feeling appreciated. Also, money.

Currency:

Amount:

Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?

Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!

Search HA

Follow Goldy

HA Commenting Policy

It may be hard to believe from the vile nature of the threads, but yes, we have a commenting policy. Comments containing libel, copyright violations, spam, blatant sock puppetry, and deliberate off-topic trolling are all strictly prohibited, and may be deleted on an entirely arbitrary, sporadic, and selective basis. And repeat offenders may be banned! This is my blog. Life isn’t fair.